“Though I didn’t realise it at the time, throughout much of my childhood I was learning what it meant to care…”

The Book Fairies were honoured to share a special book today – An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse. We hope that the finders of this book find comfort in its pages 🙂

About the book:

As our population ages, more and more of us find ourselves caring for parents and loved ones – some 8.8 million people in the UK. An invisible army of carers holding families together.

Here, Kate Mosse tells her personal story of finding herself as a carer in middle age: first, helping her mother look after her beloved father through Parkinson’s, then supporting her mother in widowhood, and finally as ‘an extra pair of hands’ for her 90-year-old mother-in-law.

This is a story about the gentle heroism of our carers, about small everyday acts of tenderness, and finding joy in times of crisis.

It’s about juggling priorities, mind-numbing repetition, about guilt and powerlessness, about grief, and the solace of nature when we’re exhausted or at a loss. It is also about celebrating older people, about learning to live differently – and think differently about ageing. But most of all, it’s a story about love.

Not lucky enough to find one?

This beautiful book is available in all good book shops – and online on Bookshop.org, too!

Would you like to join The Book Fairies?

Anyone can be a book fairy! Just get started with your first set of official book fairy stickers and you’ll not want to stop…!